News

Space, Missile Pioneer Oder Dies:

5/22/2006

AFA Caption

BodyText

Space, Missile Pioneer Oder Dies: Retired Col. Frederick “Fritz” C.E. Oder, 86, died May 11 in Gloucester, Mass., from complications due to congestive heart failure, according to a May 19 Air Force Space Command statement. Oder helped foster the evolution of missile warning, communications, meteorology, and reconnaissance satellites, including the MIDAS, SAMOS, and Discoverer programs. Born in 1919, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940 as a flying cadet but was sent to study meteorology at CalTech. He would later add physics to his academic credit and go on to serve in numerous space and missile research and development roles both in the Air Force and with industry. (Read a biography here.) Oder was one of the original 10 Space Pioneers named by the National Space Club in 1989 and honored as one of the first 12 inductees into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1997.